5. Encoding: 22:22

Thanks to people on the Japanese mailing lists, I've learned that
iso-2022-jp should be used for mail and news because it uses 7 bits
instead of 8. For some reason, my Emacs defaulted to euc-jp. Fixed
now with the handy snippet

3. Chatted with Martin Gomez: 22:19

Had a lot of fun talking to Martin Gomez about wanting to join the
Media Lab. I told him about _personal_ personal information managers
and how much fun I have tweaking planner for people's needs. In the
process of explaining just what I was so excited about, I learned a
bit more about what I want to do. I want to do a longitudinal study of
how people's usage patterns change as their PIMs grow with them.

2. Continuation of OJT lecture: 16:14

During the part 1 session that I gave you, the importance of
establishing the training plan as well as the points to keep in mind
to establish communication with Japanese persons as well as personal
management.

Culture shock

The next thing I'd like to share with you is culture shock. Have you
heard this terminology, "cultural shock"? I'm sure this has nothing to
do with you.

So what kind of images do you have in mind when you hear this
particular term, "culture shock"? So how many of you have been to
overseas countries before? Is this your first time visiting an
overseas country? At least 80% are here in Japan for your first
experience. So culture shock is the kind of symptom when the person is
away from your own home country and there is a great possibility of
happening to everyone. Whenever the person is away from your own home
country, you are away from your parents, friends, brothers and
sisters, and you are in a strange country with different customs.
Everyone has a chance to have culture shock. This is just a symptom,
not a serious disease. However, if you do not do anything and if you
just leave culture shock to make a space in your heart and spirit,
that might cause you to have serious damage to your heart.

We have a number of cases that we have experienced. One person every
few years is so stressed out that these people are no longer able to
carry out training here in Japan and they have to go home. The stress
is something you should think of carefully. So important thing to hear
again is to understand what culture shock is all about. Once you know
it, and if you realize it is happening, you may find a way to solve
the problem. Allow me to go into detail.

Here are the characteristics of culture shock. Culture shock may take
place with a mixture of all these elements.

Try to utilize this page and you can evaluate your mental state. If
some of them fit into your state, you may be suffering from culture
shock. One of the important symptom is if you oversleep or are unable
to get enough sleep, this is a particular symptom that you should
realize. Since you are working in the IT business industry, you may
need to work very hard during the weekdays, so you may need to obtain
good sleep on weekends. However, you need to differentiate between
physical fatigue and spiritual fatigue. If you are sleeping on
weekends because of physical fatigue, it is okay. However, if you are
sleeping because of emotional fatigue, it is important to realize
something is happening to you. Advice to keep this handbook or paper
with you so that you can use it as a guide or yardstick to measure
your mental status. Whenever you are establishing communication with
Japanese people and you begin to realize that these symptoms are
starting to appear...

This is the second page of symptom of culture shock. You may use these
as a guide or yardstick again.

This page contains how the culture shock process takes place in your
mind. The horizontal line uses as index the day you arrived here in
Japan from the left until the day you go home. At present you are in
the excited period. Some people like to use this honeymood period.
Since you came to Japan, your mental state is quite excited, and this
is the time you try to observe so many different things. However, as
soon as you are thrown into a new environment or you may be asked to
live in a different atmosphere, then this honeymoon period will no
longer continue. So far that you have carried out so many WBT and so
that you will learn as much Japanese as possible together with your
friends having good drinks or discussion with friends from the same
country. However, starting from 19th, you will be thrown into new
environment. Some of you have to work on your own, some of you will be
paired up with old acquaintances, but you are on your own. Even though
the two of you happen to be receiving the same kind of training at the
same company, you may not be working on the same floor. You may be
working entirely on your own. At the present moment, you think, it
doesn't happen to me--because you are still in the excited period. As
your environment changes, your feeling may cool down, and you may
enter the depressed stage. If that happens, I advise you to refer back
to these two pages as a yardstick to evaluate your emotional state.

However, this kind of process takes different by person by person. For
some people, your excitement will continue to grow and you don't get
depressed, but that's different from person to person. As I said, it's
not necessary that everyone will go through this process, but if you
establish good relationship with your teachers, your state may go up.
You may believe that may be end of it, no longer need to suffer, but
in actuality it doesn't happen like that. You may experience little
drop of your emotional state. So some people may experience number of
repetitions of recovery period and then finally reach the stable
accommodation period.

Please read the remaining pages so that you will have a much better
understanding of what culture shock is about. The last thing I'd like
to explain is the so-called re-enter shock. Once you go back to your
country, you may suffer re-enter shock. You may think "I shouldn't be
back. Japan was much better." While you were in Japan, you may think
you hate Japanese. Once you are back in your country, you may miss
Japanese people.

So far I gave you the explanation of symptoms and what kind of process
you are going to deal with in culture shock. From now on, I am going
to give you how to deal with it. I'm sure that all of you have the
capability and ability to cope with the culture shock. You will try
your best to overcome whenever you think you get caught with it. Since
each one of you have different characters and personality, you may
choose to have a sense of humor to get away from the culture shock.
Some avoid a quick decision. Choose the way that is best to deal with
the culture shock. Last page also contains the additional informations
so that you can get hint for life here so that you can escape being
caught with it.

That kind of chart you just saw was not something I came up with. It
was made by a professional psychologist. This particular psychologist
wrote in his book that the honeymoon stage is when you ask people if
they have questions and they say no... That is the honeymoon stage.
However, if you fail to establish good communication with the Japanese
people, you may become in such a state that you no longer react, or
you over-react to Japanese people's behavior and everything will
become a problem.

Repeat

Allow me to repeat once again, it is very important to establish your
training plan. If you have any doubt or question about the training
plan, then do not hesitate to ask your teachers, on the first day or
second day, to make sure you fully understand what the expectations
will be. That will be one of the major keys to make your training
successful. Your technical knowledge or technical skill will be
determined by how much the good communication you can establish with
the Japanese people from your host company. And I shared with you
three important rules. First is to keep punctual time, second good
manners - try to utilize greetings, and third, try to keep memos. And
also, I mentioned how to carry out self-management including taking
care of your own help as well as abiding with in-company rules and
regulations. I also mentioned for those of you who live in company
dormitory as well as company apartment, try to keep the community
rules so that you can avoid unnecessary problems with your neighbors.
Fourth thing I gave you explanation is the culture shock, either on
big scale or small scale. Each one of you may be able to suffer
culture shock, so I gave you the explanation on that. I also gave you
actual expamples on how to deal with problems whenever you feel you
are starting to suffer from culture shock. We AOTS staff members all
wish you a good start from next week. Try to keep all of these hints
and ideas in your mind. So now you will have a chance to see video on
OJT. This video can be quite useful information for all of you. It
takes about 30 minutes.

Video

Looking at the video, I forgot to remind you about two things. One is
the money issue. As you saw during the video, you are here in Japan as
trainees. So the pocket money you will receive from the company is not
a kind of payment of any form. It is not a salary or bonus. If any
time, the host company will ask you for overtime work, or if the
company asks you to join a development team for a bonus, you have to
say no. You are a trainee, not a company employee.

The second important thing is about new friends you may make while you
are living in Japan. As you saw in the video, it is kind of a bad
acquaintance. People may approach you and ask if you want to be a
part-timer. There are people always making up new ideas and how to
involve you with crimes in Japan. One of the examples we have is
forged telephone cards. For example, someone may approach you asking
if you want to sell telephone cards. We have had this one incident
here at YKC, there were so many forged telephone cards used at this
public phone, so YKC had to ask NTT to come and make an investigation.
It was very unfortunate and very sad incident we had in the past. So I
must ask you to self-discipline because people always make a new trap
and sweet-talk you into something illegal in Japan. In that case, you
must have the guts to say no. If you think you have involved in any
kind of illegal act, do not hesitate to contact us at YKC as well as
AOTS in general.

So I just gave you this warning, because this kind of thing may
happen.

So far I have given explanation from agenda 1 to 5. Next I am going to
provide you with two different kinds of evaluation sheet. The first
evaluation chart I am going to provide you now, we should have given
you the first day, and I am very sorry I have to give you this one at
this time. So since I am giving you this yellow sheet now, you have to
remember your state when you first arrived here at YKC. You have to go
all the way back to eight weeks ago, and try to fill in this chart. So
either tomorrow or day after tomorrow, we will give you another
version where you can put your current status, or how much you know
and knowledge you gained after arriving here in Japan. So that they
can make a comparison on how much improvement you made. Allow me to
explain why this kind of delay took place. In order to determine the
established number of the questions to be asked at the initial stage,
your projects still had to be established. Until those were
determined, we were unable to come up with the questions. So please
come and get one each and make sure to write just like you were on the
first day.

1. Afternoon lecture for your OJT: 14:44

So starting from next week we will be receiving the OJT from your host
companies. As I said before, Japanese companies are very punctual in
time. 5 minutes delay will bring you a negative assessment. It is a
great loss to receive such evaluation or self-appraisal for being
late, and that's why I have kept reminding you for the past eight
weeks to be on time, so let's keep the time. So next week, 19th will
be your last day here at AOTS, and you will be beginning your ojt, so
it will be a new start. You will be making another fresh start as of
next week, so please remind yourself to be punctual as well as other
things.

So I'll give you the OJT guidance. First I would like to explain to
you the outline of this day's schedule. The first part of this lecture
from 1:30 to 3:00 pm will cover the things you need to pay attention
to in order to make your training as successful as possible. part one
lecture will be divided into three big categories. The first is the
training program or training plan, the second is communication, and
the third is self-management or self-control. Then we'll have a short
break. Fourth agenda is I'd like to give you an explanation of the
cultural shock. Lastly, you'll have a chance to see the video of the
ojt as a summarization of today's lecture. I'm hoping to finish by
4:00 pm. if there is no time, I may need to skip showing you the
video, so we'll see how fast we can progress. Number 6 agenda is an
evaluation sheet. Number 7 is also an evaluation sheet in Japanese. I
hope to complete by 4:30.

Planning

Allow me to start. I've already handed you some material, and the same
thing is appearing on the screen. The first thing I'd like to mention
is the training program or plan. Do you know what kind of training
plan or program you will have? I hope everyone knows your training
plan. I've already handed you "Do you understand your specialized
technical training?". First I will ask, does everyone fully understand
your training plan? If so, I may not go into detail. If any one of you
are not quite sure, then I will spend some time and give you some
explanation. Which way do you want? Can we skip, or do you need any
kind of explanation of this?

Please take "Do you understand your specialized technical training?".
Please fill in your understanding of your training plan. I'll give you
five minutes. Whatever you have difficulty filling in, that means your
understanding is not adequate. You are filling this in now to find out
how much you understand about your training. On your first day, you
need to clearly understand what you are doing. You are writing it down
for your own sake. Each one of you clearly needs to understand your
goal and target and objective in being here in Japan, otherwise your
training will not become a success. If you don't know why you are here
in Japan, these things need to be clarified before you actually go and
work at your host companies. ... For example, you have your own
objective or target. If your company has another objective, for
example if it comes to the plant, the company wants to increase the
production line, whereas the trainee may want to know the kind of
management in the company. So in that case, maybe trainees' objectives
and companies' objectives may not be identical, but at least they are
heading in the same direction. Important thing is to make sure what
you are heading for or what your are looking for, at least you and the
host company have to be looking in the same direction.

In some cases, some trainees who don't know why they are receiving
this OJT are embarrassed to ask. Or if you think you understand but
you really don't. If you start your OJT in this manner, you will come
across barriers. At the very beginning, you must clearly understand
why you are here and what kind of target or objective you are aiming
for. So if you look at the bottom left, that will be your first day of
work with your host company. The first day has its own importance.
Normally, the host companies on your first day of your work, they will
promote a sort of guidance session so that you can smoothly transfer
to the host companies.

My advice is on your first day, you will take the proactive approach
with your teachers from the host company, and you may need to clarify
all the points on which you are not clear. So if your start is carried
out in appropriate manner, then for example, your training can be
represented as climbing up a mountain. You know exactly what you are
doing and which stage of progress you are doing. If you are able to
work in this manner, then at the end, you will fulfill your objective
for being here in Japan.

So far I have given you how important it is to establish your training
plan in order to make your stay successful. So do you fully
understand, or does anyone want to ask a question or make a
confirmation? Again, allow me to stress that you will have a chance to
meet your teacher from your host company either on the first day or
second day, so make good use of that first meeting with your teachers.

Second agenda is about communication. You obviously will establish
communication not only with your teachers but also with Japanese
people from your host companies. In order to avoid any kind of
miscommunication or problem, you need to bear in mind certain things.
Sorry, before that, I need to mention the financial aspect.

Proper allowance

The money is quite important issue so that you will be able to fully
utilize your training period. This paper covers your financial status
since the day you have arrived here in Japan up until the 19th of next
week. So your training cost, as I said on the first day, is subsidized
by the Japanese government as well as the host company. The monies are
provided to each one of you. So let's confirm how the financial status
will change when you go and work for the host company. Air fare and
air ticket will remain the same. You will be paid for the actual
lodging allowance. You will be actually receiving some kind of
lodging. Some of you may, after leaving YKC, live in a company's
dormitory. The place to live will be provided to you by the host
company. However, as far as I know, 80% of you will either continue to
stay at YKC or move over to TKC, so your living condition may stay the
same. And also you will be provided with the meal allowance of 2700
yen a day as well as personal allowance of 1200 yen a day.

Starting from 3, 4 and 5, these are the kind of fees AOTS provided to
your host companies. Not a payment for you. So the cost of technical
training will be provided to the company at 4650 yen a day. Cost of
technical training will be paid from AOTS to your host company, and
host company will be able to use this fee to purchase a PC or provide
for the teacher's personnel cost as well as provide textbooks. That
decision will be made by each company. And you will continue to be
provided with medical service. As long as you are an AOTS trainee,
your health insurance is covered by this service.

So after the 19th, you will be paid for the meal allowance as well as
the personal allowance for your company. Form of payment will vary
from company to company. Some companies pay every month, or every
week, or every two weeks. That is up to the company. Whenever you will
receive the money from your host company, please check the amount.
After you check the amount, you will need to fill in the receipt. You
also need to obtain a copy of the receipt which you will be signing.
So my advice is better to keep a copy of the receipt in case of
problem. If you have the copy, that means you have the evidence in
your hand, and can easily solve the problem.

I gave you the explanation about your financial status as of next
week. Does anyone have any questions? Does everyone fully understand?

Communication

Next is how to establish communication with Japanese people without
making any problems or miscommunication. In order to make your
training a successful one, I have tried to use this cause-and-effect
diagram (fishbone). I have already explained about the proper
allowance, and I already gave you the explanation about the importance
of establishing your training plan and schedule by good planning. Next
I would like to share with you how to establish good communication
with your teachers as well as your colleagues.

First, I would like to give you a type of person who is favored and
liked by Japanese teachers from your host companies. The teachers like
students to take memos or put in your notes, write down the things you
think important. Taking the memo whenever you listen to something very
useful or important, and accustomizing to this habit, will be very
appreciated by your teachers. Some companies will ask you to write a
report on a weekly or monthly basis. Try to make the memo as much as
possible. Important thing is obviously you will be receiving training
using the computer. You may be most of the time sitting in front of
the PC, and your teacher may give you important advice. While you are
looking at the screen, you may think you understand. But when a change
of scene takes place, you thought you understood, but it actually
didn't penetrate into your mind. Don't rely on your memory, but
document them, so you can always rely on your memo. Looking from your
profit point of you, it's important to listen very carefully to what
your teacher has to say. Most of your teachers are very busy because
they are very capable persons, so they are giving your their valuable
time. Don't rely on your memory, write it down, so it will give a good
impression to your host company. If other teachers come and tell you
other things, you can always refer to your notes and say so-and-so
teacher said so a few weeks ago. ... (if you keep notes), the company
thinks you are not wasting their precious time.

So the people at YKC as well as interpreter like myself will try to
explain in detail, but once you go to host company, they may not speak
just like we do. In that case, you should ask, "Please say it again."
It is very important. Otherwise you will never get the chance to learn
what they have to teach you. Some other Japanese way of establishing
communication is just looking into your eyes. Some teachers say "Why
don't you try it?" Clearly that is not adequate. In that case, you
have to voice your opinions. And also, during these past weeks, you
devoted yourself to acquiring Japanese skill. Try not to be hesitant.
Try to proactively (engage them in conversation). And also, in order
to avoid miscommunication with you and your teachers or colleagues,
obviously you are working in IT industry in which lots of English is
used. However, it is not necessary that even if your teacher uses a
lot of English, they understand English well. In that case, it is
better to use Japanese to avoid problems. Some of you have already
purchased electronic dictionaries or have ordinary dictionaries. The
methodology doesn't matter as long as you establish good personal
relationships with your teachers so that you don't have
miscommunication.

So in the past, here in the past, we have had a number of successful
trainees. These people had two things. They had acquired the habit of
taking memo. Those successful trainees had managed to create their own
dictionaries based on their memos. That is a successful way of making
your training. So in the past, we have had a number of successful
trainees during the OJT. Their skill of Japanese was dramatically
improved, and they made a great success. Try to write your own memo as
well as your own dictionary. That is the quickest way to make a
success. The memo is for you, not for others. You will obviously be
working in different fields of IT. Try to make use of the memo and
words.

In my past experience tells me that after you have worked for your
host company, you will either be coming back to YKC or TKC, and you
will have a chance to compare your memos with other trainees. You will
have a chance to evaluate other people's notes so that you can find
out how they are acquiring their skills. That kind of competing with
each other may give you good results.

So as I said, as of next week, you will be with your host company's
people. You are not dealing with people at YKC any more. You will be
dealing with Japanese people at your company, so use your Japanese.
Find a way to improve your skill.

There is another important point to be remembered. And also it is
important to have the periodical meeting as well as to evaluate your
progress during your training. So as I said, at the very start of your
training at your host company, you need to establish your
consensus--your plan and objectives of receiving the training for you
and your company. In between, you need to have periodical meetings
with your teachers from your host company in order to establish a
consensus as well as evaluate your progress. For example, if I have no
idea what kind of environment you will be asked to work in and receive
your training. In the middle, you may be asked to join some kind of
team. Maybe halfway, you may get lost. You might not understand what
you are doing there. That is why you need to have a periodical meeting
with your host meeting. If you do not do anything, you will have such
a chaotic situation. My advice is to have some kind of meeting at
least once a week. It is important to define the time and when. Which
day and which time. An important thing is that if you do not know when
you are going to have this kind of periodical meeting, then you should
make a proposal. Say that you would like to have a meeting with your
teacher, say every Monday morning at 10 AM.

And also, it is very important to establish a good feeling of trust
between you and the people from your host company, so try to utilize
your memo as well as your weekly or monthly report, and try to get as
much as possible from your host company.

Another important thing to establish communication with Japanese
people is that if you cannot do something, you have to say it. If you
do not understand, say it. And also, you have to do three things: to
report, and consult, and try to correspond. These three things are
very important. So for example, if your first assignment is to create
some kind of program by next Friday, the first thing you have to say
is whether you can do it or whether you are unable to do it. As I
said, report is very important. Your task is to complete a task by
Friday. If you think you are unable to finish by Friday, in that case,
you have to report to your teacher. You cannot wait until Friday. You
have to say to your teacher, despite the fact that I gave you my word
to finish on Friday, I don't think I can do that. You should do that
on Wednesday or Thursday. You cannot wait until Friday to say I cannot
do it. So if you don't say anything, then the people in the host
company think you are doing okay. If you report to them that you are
unable to do it, they might give you advice on how to achieve the
task. Let them know your progress at all times.

Important thing is to make as much detailed a report as possible. If
you are working in a plant, everyone can see your progress. If you are
working on a computer program, only you can see your progress, no one
else. You need to make a report saying how much progress you have
made, otherwise no one will know how you are doing. My proposal is
that at least once every day, before you go home, try to make a report
to your teacher or manager because now you know how to send e-mail in
Japanese. If the manager is not there, you can make the report every
day. If the manager is there, you can make a verbal report about what
you achieve every day.

And also, I would like to remind you about some of the manners. You
know some of the famous daily phrases like "Ohayou gozaimasu". If you
have to go home before everyone else, you have to say "Osaki ni
shitsureishimasu". And also in order to establish good communication
with people from your host company, try to use these useful phrases as
much as possible. It will become a key for your success. Japanese
people try to make a good start every morning. That is why "Ohayou
gozaimasu" is important. You always greet me with "Ohayou gozaimasu",
but you are doing it because you are there with your trainee friends.
However, if you happen to be on your own, surrounded by 50 Japanese
strangers, you may be slightly hesitant to say these phrases. My
advice is the first day is extremely important, so you have to have
the brave heart and try to make the first by saying "Ohayou gozaimasu"
to everyone you meet in the company. That will make for a very smooth
transition. So unlike manufacturing plants where everyone starts work
at 8:30 sharp, working at an IT company means some of the engineers
may not have slept last night, or some may be on flexible time so will
come in at around 11. You may come to the office every morning at 9:00
AM and find no one there. But it's important to say the first words!
I'm sure you can make a good start and you can do it.
And always, a word of thanks works magic. If someone is nice to you,
try to say thank you as much as possible. On your time to go home, I'm
sure there will still be many Japanese working, so I advise you to use
"Osaki ni shitsureishimasu." Also, if some Japanese people go home
before you, then you should use "Otsukaresama deshita." OJT, what you
have learned in 8 weeks of Japanese here, now you can actually use
them.

And also, I would like to mention about whenever you make a mistake in
your host company. Whenever you think you made a mistake, the first
word to be used is "Sumimasen" — word of apology. Because in Japan,
it is important for you to apologize first. The reason for making a
mistake is second issue. Important thing is to admit you made a
mistake. It will give you a very good impression. If you can be able
to master these basic attitudes which I have mentioned, you will be
liked by your colleagues.

I would like to summarize this second agenda of communication. To make
the teacher feel like I want to teach this trainee more, what you
should be doing:

- 1. Express yourself as much as possible. Facial expression or words.
Try to make them understand what you are thinking. Unless you will
explain this is what I feel, the Japanese people will have absolutely
no understanding of what you are thinking.

- 2. Also, if some teacher teach you something, try to repeat so that
you will make sure you understand what you have received from your
teachers. So in order to create good atmosphere to receive more and
more trainings from your teachers or the company, it is to make sure
you take a memo when the teacher teaches you something. That memo is
not only used once, but several times.

Self control

Next is self control or self management. First is the punctuality.
Punctual time-keeping. Generally speaking, Japanese people as well as
Japanese companies will keep very tight, severe time control. Looking
from your benefit point of view, you need to adjust yourself into the
Japanese society as of next week. Whenever Japanese people try to use
the on-time time management, if you are asked to meet somewhere at 10
AM, you should be there 9:55. We have a thing, ten minutes advanced
time. You should be there at least five minutes before 10.

Another important aspect is health. As you have heard during the
introduction course, the Japanese season is going toward winter
season. Winter season means you will be experiencing the kind of
coldness you have never experienced before. That is why you need to
take care of yourself really well and pay attention. The change of the
season means that sometimes there are very hot days and then sometimes
very cold.

And also, you will be asked to obey the rules and regulations of the
company including the safety rules and regulations. However, in your
case, you won't be working at a plant or manufacturing facility, so
there are no dangerous rules or regulations that you have to abide. If
there are any in-house rules or regulations, please obey them.

However, there is the danger may exist even in the IT industry. They
must have some kind of company security code, so you may not have
access into certain kind of program. You need to keep that, or you may
come across some kind of trouble or incident. Please keep that in
mind--how much accessible information you can obtain from that company
or not.

And also, for those people staying at YKC or TKC, it is okay, but for
those people staying in apartment or company dormitory, in Japan, we
have very strict rules about disposing of garbage. You need to
segregate. They have to be all divided. You have to abide by these
rules. You will have to understand we have only a very small
population of foreigners in Japan, so you should avoid any kind of
problem because you don't want to get blamed. It is always helpful if
you know the rules and how to do it. If you know it, then you can
avoid unnecessary problems with Japanese people, and you will be
welcomed and liked by the Japanese people.

So far I have managed to give you the explanation about your training
plan as well as how to establish the communication with the Japanese
people as well as self-management. Any question?

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Page: 2004.10.13

Updated: 2004-11-2106:44:1406:44:14-0500

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